Naval and Military LAMBERT

[ThamesDitton]

I'm researching for local history purposes the astonishing generation of Lamberts in the late 1700s-late 1800s and would welcome help from genealogical experts to resolve the following questions:

Concerning Captain Robert Lambert RN born abt 1730-34 second son of Sir John Lambert, second bart, by Anna (snu) - (full name believed to be Robert Alexander Lambert)
He was captain of a succession of HM ships culminating in Leviathan, which foundered in the N Atlantic February 1780, after which the wires go dead, but the obituary of his widow in the Morning Post describes him as a Commissioner in the Navy and evidently he was siring sons as late as 1796 (George Lambert later Admiral)
Q1: Capt. Robert Lambert's  career after 1780, and date and place of death?

Concerning Robert Lambert born April 1771 to Capt Robert (Alexander} Lambert by Catherine nee Byndloss died Admiral Robert Lambert 1836 at Weston Green, Thames Ditton (full name believed Robert Stuart Lambert) :
Q2: date and place of birth?

He married Charlotte in about 1798 (calculated):
Q3: date and place of marriage?  Maiden name and parent of Charlotte?

1818 Charlotte Lambert wife of Robert Lambert died in Beauport in Sussex Aug 22 aged 41 years buried in Battle Church
Q4: any record of any offspring at all from that marriage??

Concerning Catherine Lambert nee Byndloss:
She died 27 October 1832 in her 81st year at the house of her son General Sir John Lambert KCB (he was made GCB in 1838) at Stanmore.  Can you identify where exactly this house was in  Stanmore (presumably the area of NW London)

The Lambert thread is very knotty in that (a) there were at least two different lines of ennoblement both starting with entirely different Sir John Lamberts.  This particular family stems from the baronetcy of 1711. (b)The five military and naval sons of a naval father (Capt. Robert Lambert) led peripatetic careers and stayed at each others houses quite frequently on home leave/postings; also Gen Sir John at  one point is listed as residing at Portman Square which I believe was more likely the property of Sir Henry Lambert (cousins that continued the succession to Lambert Baronetcy of 1711) and (c) they were all named after each other and their father; a situation further complicated by the naval habits of others to name their sons after captains and colleagues - e.g the later and equally distinguished  Admiral Robert Lambert Baynes has no blood connection, I believe, with these Lamberts.  At least six of these Lamberts over two generations made Weston Green their home base.

Many thanks for any help you can offer.

[Valda]

Hi


According to these trees it was Charlotte Pigou

http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/genealogy/web/pigou/pafg04.htm
http://www.egyptologie.be/amsterdam_crommelin_vanhoorn.htm


11th December 1799 St Marylebone Middlesex
Robert Lambert Esquire bachelor of the parish
Charlotte Pigou spinster of the parish
married by licence
Both signed
Witnesses Frederick Pigou and Sophia ?


Baptism

24th April 1803 St Marylebone, Middlesex born 26th March
John Lambert parents Captain Robert Lambert R N and Charlotte



Regards

Valda

[ThamesDitton]

Excellent - Valda, you are a real star!  Those didn't come up in my own searches over the past year.

Those are the ones.  Your date 1799 for the marriage of Robert and Charlotte fits with the long events  timeline I have been constructing; Robert Lambert was posted home in June 1798 from his captaincy of HMS Suffolk, which had been deployed to the East Indies to reduce the Dutch garrison at Ceylon.  The date of marriage (given as Sept 1818) in the second link above is clearly wrong as we know she died at Beauport in August 1818 - from a plaque erected by her husband in the East wall of the South aisle of St Nicholas Church Thames Ditton.

Wonderful that Robert, of a family of fighting men who were not your gilded scions of the Royal establishment, but rather were in the thick of the action always, should have married the daughter of gunpowder merchants and I trust that meant good supplies of the finest powder at cost price for his commands.  Yet another line in an interesting story of this family.

Thank you so much.

[ThamesDitton]

I've spent the rest of the day trying to track down Capt Robert Alexander Lambert (abt 1734 - ??, wife Catherine nee Byndloss) after the Leviathan foundered in the North Atlantic under his command in February 1780.  I can't find any trace of him as 'Commissioner in the Royal Navy' (his widow's obit.  There were several types of Commissioner including resident commissioners at dockyards and shore stations).  Indeed I can't find any trace of him at all after 1780.   As we know that George Robert Lambert (later Admiral and GCB) was the youngest of the five fighting brothers he sired, and George Robert was born some time in 1796:

-  does anyone have access to George Robert's baptism and what does it say if anything about father Robert Lambert's occupation (other than Capt RN)?
-  any sign of a date/place of death for Capt. Robert Alexander Lambert RN ?

Thanks again.

[Valda]

Hi


Baptism

3rd October 1795 St Marylebone, Middlesex born 8th September
George Robt Lambert parents Robt Lambert esq. and Catherine

No other baptisms found.

There is a burial of a Robert Lambert at the same church on 20th November 1802. Nothing to indicate that this is the correct man.



Regards

Valda

[ThamesDitton]

Once again, this is excellent and you are wonderful!  It is confirmation that Robert Alexander was still alive after the Leviathan went down and did indeed live until at least 1795 (the date for *a* Robert Lambert's death of November 1802  is reasonable - I have his likely dob as 1730-34.  But on internet searches there is no other trace of him after 1780.

His wife Catherine deserves a medal (I intend to flag up this achievement when I get round to writing the history).  Her dob is about 1750 (she died Oct 1832 'in her 81st year') and I believe Robert Stuart Lambert was her first child in 1771 so the likely date of marriage would be 1770, and she produced at least five great fighting sons (and probably one other son, Robert Francis abt 1787, undistinguished except by a plaque along with the others in St Nicholas' Church). I don't know about daughters although I have one Maria that is likely.  She was around 45 when she had George Robert, the youngest son.

[Valda]

Hi


Catherine's burial record, 3rd November 1832 at Great Stanmore, gives her age as 80, so if accurate a birth year of circa 1752.


There is a PCC will for a Robert Lambert in Marylebone but if the same burial it would not have been probated straight away (there are other Robert Lambert PCC wills).

Will of Robert Lambert of Saint Marylebone , Middlesex
3rd January 1806
PROB 11/1437


Of the five sons you have Robert 1771, were two others, John 1772 and Thomas Rowley Lambert born 1776?
There seems to be Rowley Lambert scholarships associated with Thames Ditton.


Why would they name two sons Robert if the elder lived?


Regards

Valda

[ThamesDitton]

John 1772 (April) is the second son (later General Sir John lambert, GCB)

The third son was Henry (later capt Henry, killed in command of HMS Java in action against USS Constitution).  I have yet to research him fully (but there is a fair bit of history available) and don't yet have a firm dpob.

The fourth was Samuel (like John, of the Grenadier Guards - 1st Foot; but a slightly less distinguished career ending as Maj. Gen and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica where he died of yellow fever)  I don't have so much on him and don't have a definite date/place of birth.

And the fifth of these fighting brothers was George Robert, a very aggressive officer by all accounts, later Admiral and GCB.

Robert Francis is as yet unsolved but I take your point.

George Robert sired Rowley Lambert (named after Adm Rowley?) b. 23 April 1828 Bredwardine, Herefordshire (believed).  George Robert  lived here (Weston Green, Thames Ditton) for some years when not abroad. Rowley also made Weston Green (then still part of thames Ditton) his home between postings.  His wife Helen was a Campbell and was interesting too: they had no issue, and she devoted her considerable energies to other things, ending up as the first woman local councillor here (1896 - Esher and The Dittons UDC, elected as one of Thames Ditton's councillors - there are interesting stories connected with that too).  I still have to ask about the Rowley Lambert scholarships (administered by our local vicar - I will email him) but these are likely to stem from Helen.

PS: I didn't have a Thomas Rowley Lambert but could be another one.  The 'five brothers' are taken from obits and press articles at various dates, all consistent (especially but not only reports from Jamaica on the death of Samuel, 3 Jan 1848)

[Valda]

Hi

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has an entry for Henry which starts

'Lambert, Henry (d. 1813), naval officer, younger son of Captain Robert Lambert (d. 1810), '

Wikipedia says of Henry

'During his career, Lambert served in numerous ships and several military actions with success, participating in the capture of Île Bonaparte in the Indian Ocean as second in command under Josias Rowley.'

Sir Josias Rowley 1765-1842 naval officer. His uncle Sir Joshua Rowley 1734-1790 was also a naval officer.

On the otherhand John Lambert's entry in ODof NB begins

'Lambert, Sir John (1772–1847), army officer, was born on 28 April 1772, the son of Captain Robert Alexander Lambert RN (c.1732–1801), '


Possible baptisms

ROBERT LAMBERT
Christening:  08 MAY 1771   Old Alresford, Hampshire
Father:  ROBERT LAMBERT   
Mother:  CATHARINE

JOHN LAMBERT
Christening:  23 MAY 1772   Old Alresford, Hampshire
Father:  ROBERT LAMBERT   
Mother:  CATHARINE

THOMAS ROWLEY LAMBERT
Christening:  20 AUG 1776   Old Alresford, Hampshire
Father:  ROBERT LAMBERT   
Mother:  CATHARINE     
 

Marriage

19th January 1768 Kilmeston Hampshire
Robert Lambert
Catherine Byndloss

Kilmeston and Old Alresford are just over 5 miles apart.
     


Regards

Valda